Should I get a new G5 Mac?

[Asher]

If you're going to buy a Mac, the only one worthwhile for your money will be a PowerBook.

I don't see the point in the G5, aside from being finally up to speed with mid-range PCs now, and low-end PCs in a few months.

If you want 64-bits, get an Athlon 64.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
i don't know if its a case of "prefer" based on tastes; it's probably a preference derived from what they learned and what's most common.

Right, because ease of use is a matter of taste as well.

Most of us probably find the idea of one menubar for all open applications, up at the top of the screen regardless of where the window it control is, harder to use than how Windows does it.

Some of us find the idea of randomly mixing running and non-running programs with the dock (without any text labels describing what it is) harder to use.

Some of us find the idea of not listing active windows, just active programs, harder to use.

[SpencerH]

I agree with Asher, the only Macs worth the money are the powerbooks (and they are very good).

[FrostyBoy]

Instead of Kazaa you could use Gnutella or Hotlines (an oldie, but a goodie)

[FrostyBoy]

So if you go PC, are you just gonna tell em you don't want a G5, you want a PC?

[Henrik]

Havent read the entire thread, but just so you know: Civ 2 stuff runs fine on macs...

As long as you have the game (civ 2 gold for mac isnt expensive though).

(With one exception, you need to drop image and audio files on a converter program available here on polly. Macs obviously has no problems with Wavs or Gifs, but for some reason the games programers thought it'd be neater if the mac version used "pict" and "Aif" files ). You also need to change one line in the game.txt if included in a PC scenario.

[Henrik]

Mac versions that I know of:

Trillian - Sadly I don't think so
Winamp - No but there are equivalents
Word - Yup
Excel - Yup
Outlook - Not sure, I think so, if you really want to use it. Otherwise there are loads of programs like it...
Adobe Photodeluxe - Not sure, most of Adobe's program exists, but I am not sure what photodeluxe is.
Winzip/WinRar - "Zipit" works just fine for this
Callwave - No idea what this is.
Audiocatalyst (or other program to make MP3s from CDs) - I know there are programs that do this. Never used one myself though (if soundapp isn't capable of it that is).
Kazaa - There are file sharing clients for mac, I'm using one called "Poisened"
Print Shop - No idea what it is.
Wordpad/Notepad - Yup, not called the same thing but it ships with the system.
Adobe reader - Yup
AOL - Yup
IE - Yup
IRC/ICQ -Yup

Games:
Colonization - Yes
MOO1 - Yes
Civ2 - Yes
AoE2 - Yes
UO - What does UO stand for?
Baldur's Gate - Yes
Alpha Centuri - Yes
CtP - Yes (though not CtP 2)
Doom2 - I think so
X-Wing - Not sure
NES and SNES Emulators - Quite sure there are some, don't use any myself though.

I have mac versions of al the games listed as Yes except for CtP btw

[Q Classic]

uo == ultima online.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I like the cake and eat it too idea.

Don't listen to Asher's ranting, he just has G5 envy.

But I'm gonna list off a few programs here that I use on a regular basis. Are there mac versions?

Here are the ones I know of..

Trillian - Fire; Proteus; MSN Messnger; Yahoo Messenger; ichat (AIM), etc.

Winamp - itunes is way better

Word
Excel
Outlook - all in Office X (Outlook is called Entourage on the Mac)

Winzip/WinRar - Stuffit

Audiocatalyst (or other program to make MP3s from CDs) - itunes again

Kazaa - there is an OS mac Kazaa client called Poisoned

Wordpad/Notepad - Text edit; Stickies

Adobe reader - Yes

AOL - Yes

IE - Yes, but Camino, Safari and Omniweb are better

IRC/ICQ - Yes; loads of clients

Games:
Colonization - I think so
MOO1 - ?
Civ2 - Yes
AoE2 - Yes I have it
UO - ?
Baldur's Gate - Yes I have it
Alpha Centuri - Yes I have it
CtP - Yes
Doom2 - Yes
X-Wing - don't know
NES and SNES Emulators - don't know

Hmm, I guess I don't use an extensive amount of programs. I suppose I could find replacements for all the non-game programs I use. My question though is whether files would be compatable from my current versions and a Mac version. I've got a lot of files that I don't want to loose, like Word docs, Excel sheets, MP3s, pictures, movies, especially logs from Trillian, ICQ and IRC.

Apart from the chat logs (which I don't know about) all of these will work. You may need to download the open source Movie Player for OS X to play some movies (free and good).

Looks like you shouldn't have to worry.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
uo == ultima online.

Not as far as I know. Mac people play Lineage which is same sort.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Don't listen to Asher's ranting, he just has G5 envy.

HAH.

My new rig I'm buying at the end of the month will have a maximum TOTAL noise of 25dB (a third of the noise the G5s generate).

It'll have an Athlon 64 FX-51 (quite a bit faster than the G5s -- it's a 2.2GHz Opteron), 1GB of dual-channel 400MHz DDR (ECC), a 256MB Radeon 9900 Pro (R360).

And it can actually play Half-Life 2.

Envy I have not.

Did I mention my system will still cost considerably less than a G5?

[Drake Tungsten]

NES and SNES Emulators - Quite sure there are some, don't use any myself though.

There are many. Emulation.net is the best site on the web for Mac emulators. You'll find everything you need there (except ROMs).

[Skanky Burns]

Games:
Colonization - I think so
MOO1 - ?
Civ2 - Yes
AoE2 - Yes I have it
UO - ?
Baldur's Gate - Yes I have it
Alpha Centuri - Yes I have it
CtP - Yes
Doom2 - Yes
X-Wing - don't know
NES and SNES Emulators - don't know

If you went mac, wouldn't you need to actually buy a new version of all these games you already own?

[monolith94]

"You'll find everything you need there (except ROMs)."

And a message to my PM box from you would help me rectify the needed rom problem...